Oakland Raiders beat Pittsburgh Steelers 21-18

OAKLAND -- The enduring image of a 21-18 win by the Raiders over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday came in the first 19 seconds.

That's how long it took Terrelle Pryor to rewrite franchise and NFL record books with a 93-yard touchdown run at O.co Coliseum.

Some of the crowd of 52,950 were still settling into their seats when Pryor became the author of the longest run in Raiders history, surpassing Bo Jackson (92 yards against Cincinnati in 1989) and the longest by a quarterback in league history (80 yards by Pittsburgh's Kordell Stewart in 1996).

"He's like a dad-gum gazelle out there," right guard Mike Brisiel said.

Oakland Raiders quaterback Terrelle Pryoer (2) runs for a 93-yard touchdown run against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first quarter of their game at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff)
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JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO
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A lot else had to happen in the final 59:41 for the Raiders to improve to 3-4. The Raiders went into the half with a 21-3 halftime lead and ended up needing to recover an onside kick as well as stop the Steelers one final time after Oakland's offense went stagnant in the second half.

As pleased as coach Dennis Allen was with the win, there was a hint of exasperation in his voice when discussing an interception directly off the hands of wide receiver Brice Butler and a fumble deep in Raiders territory by Jacoby Ford that could have cost the Raiders dearly.

"You're giving them an opportunity to get back in the game, and you can't do that," Allen said. "Good football teams, they don't do that. ... What I'm going to visit with our guys about is you have to understand what wins and loses in this game."

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After Pryor's electrifying opening act, the Raiders got touchdown runs of 7 and 4 yards by Darren McFadden, with the Steelers managing a 47-yard field goal by Shaun Suisham before the half.

Suisham would later miss his first two field goals of the season, from distances of 34 and 32 yards, which would come back to haunt the Steelers as Oakland snapped a 10-game losing streak after bye weeks.

Pittsburgh, which came in having won its last two games, fell to 2-5 with its third consecutive loss in Oakland.

"We allowed them to control and dictate the flow of the game and how we started really in all three phases," Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said. "The first 30 minutes of football were poor on our part."

In the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh got the Raiders nervous with a 9-yard pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Emmanuel Sanders and a 2-yard run by Le'Veon Bell with 1:24 to play, followed by Sanders' run on a two-point conversion.

The Raiders defense held up heroically while the offense sputtered in the second half. Oakland managed only one first down in the second half -- an 18-yard slant pass from Pryor to Denarius Moore when backed up against its own end zone.

After rushing for 182 yards in the first half, the Raiders had 13 rushes for 15 yards in the second half. McFadden finished with 73 yards on 24 carries, with 56 yards coming on 13 first-half rushes. The Raiders had 35 yards of total offense in the second half.

Mike Jenkins and Tracy Porter had interceptions against Roethlisberger (Porter's play was originally ruled a fumble recover but changed in the game book), and the Steelers never could mount any kind of a running game (19 carries, 35 yards).

Roethlisberger put up much of his stats (29 of 45 for 275 yards) in the second half while working with a deficit, was sacked five times (twice by linebacker Sio Moore) and at times had difficulty finding open receivers.

"The important thing was for the most part when we got our hands on Ben, we got him down," safety Charles Woodson said.

Pryor, who ended the game completing 10 of 19 passes for 88 yards with two interceptions, called it "a team win, whether we play great or the defense plays great. I think we had a phenomenal first half, and the defense had a phenomenal second half."

Tomlin's big mistake may have been electing to put his defense on the field to start to game after the Steelers won the coin toss.

"Obviously we can't choose to defer a kickoff and allow them to explode, spotting them seven on the first play of the game," Tomlin said.

Notebook: Rashad Jennings comes up big on special teams.PAGE 5

Purdy: Raiders defense is pulling its weight, and that's good news. PAGE 5